The budget was passed regardless of some ‘outstanding lapses’ that were neither filled by the Executive nor corrected by the parliament. Also, the current figures indicate a difference from the N6, 077,680,000,000 that was proposed earlier by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2015, when the budget was first presented before a joint sitting of the National Assembly.
The passing of the 2016 budget followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, chaired by Sen. Danjuma Goje of the All Progressives Congress. The Gombe State Senator, Danjuma Goje, indicated the breakdown as follows:
Aggregate Expenditure 6,060,677,358,227
Statutory Transfers – N351,370,000,000
Debt Service – N1,475,320,000,000
Recurrent Expenditure – N2,646389,236,196
Capital Expenditure – N1,587,598,122,031
Fiscal Deficit – N2,204,936,925,711.16.
The budget is predicated on an oil benchmark of $38 dollars per barrel; daily crude oil production of 2.2 million barrels and an exchange rate of N197 to the American dollar.
Head of the Senate Finance Committee, John Enoh, was quoted as saying this is the first time since 1999 that the National Assembly would approve a figure lower than proposed by the executive, which is characteristic of discipline on the part of the Senate.
After passing the budget, the Senate adjourned plenary to April 12, 2016.
@Chika Okorie for encomium.ng